It is well known in the prior art to provide air bag assemblies for the protection of vehicle occupants which are mounted on the vehicle steering wheel or instrument panels. It is also known to provide various air bag arrangements for protection of vehicle occupants during events in which the occupant is directed towards the side of the vehicle. For example, it is known to provide air bags for side impact protection which have an upper head portion and a lower torso portion which simultaneously inflate for protection of a vehicle occupant during a side impact event. It is also known to provide one or more tubular-shaped air bags which inflate to a rigid condition to protect generally the head portion of a vehicle occupant. However, these arrangements are typically directed to protection of either a front or a rear seat occupant. In addition, these arrangements require a substantial amount of inflation gas to quickly fill an inflatable restraint cushion with a relatively large volume for inflation. Furthermore, these arrangements typically offer inflated coverage to a single predetermined location in the vehicle for a limited amount of time during an initial event that triggers the inflation. Also, the packaging of large fabric air bags may be cumbersome, especially when packaging the restraint assembly in small packaging locations such as the vehicle roof or upper side rails.